FILE PHOTO: Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, speaks during the launch of Adopting Bitcoin – A Lightning Summit in El Salvador, in San Salvador, El Salvador November 7, 2023. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas/File Photo
(Corrects spelling of 'billion' in headline)
Feb 4 (Reuters) - Crypto group Tether Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino has downplayed the amount of money it will raise in a new funding round following investor pushback over its $500-billion valuation goal, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
Tether's advisers have floated raising as little as $5 billion after facing investor reluctance, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter, following talks of a $15 billion to $20 billion fundraise last year.
El Salvador-based Tether is the issuer of the world's most widely used USDT stablecoin, a digital dollar with $187 billion worth of tokens in circulation.
Bloomberg News reported in September last year that Tether was seeking between $15 billion and $20 billion for about a 3% stake through a private placement that could value it at as much as $500 billion.
Calling the initial funding target a "misconception", CEO Ardoino told the FT: "that number is not our goal. It's our maximum we were ready to sell."
Ardoino told the FT that Tether had "received a lot of interest" at the $500 billion valuation, with undecided equity sales in part because insiders are reluctant to unload shares.
Reuters could not immediately verify the FT report. Tether did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Last month, Ardoino told Reuters that Tether's 2026 profit is expected to exceed the $10 billion it is estimated to have earned in 2025 and possibly the $13.7 billion earned in 2024.
Tether has strengthened its position in the stablecoin market by offering cryptocurrencies pegged to traditional currencies to reduce volatility and ease transfers between digital assets.
(Reporting by Ananya Palyekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
